SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2023 8:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“False Leaders Are Cursed For Their
Contamination”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 23:27-28
Message of the verses: “27 “Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs
which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s
bones and all uncleanness. 28 “Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to
men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
We are now looking at the sixth “woe” in these two
verses as Jesus cursed the scribes and Pharisees for spiritually contaminating
everyone they touched.
What
is our Lord referring to when He says “you are like whitewashed tombs which on
the outside appear beautiful.” Now
especially in the New Testament times the Palestinian Jews after the end of the
spring rains would go out and whitewash things like their houses, walls, and in
particular tombs. MacArthur writes “They
began this task on the fifteenth of Adar, which roughly corresponds to March,
in order to make their communities more attractive for Passover pilgrims. They
had an additional purpose for whitewashing grave sites, however, especially
those in and near Jerusalem. Because a
person became ceremonially unclean for seven days if he touched a dead body or
even a grave (Num. 19:16), all tombs were carefully whitewashed to identify
them to unwary travelers. They would be
prevented from inadvertently touching the bombs and becoming defiled and
thereby disqualified to participate in many of the Passover activities,
including the offering of sacrifices. In
some cases the entire tomb was painted, and in other s drawing of bones were
painted on it to mark it as a sepulcher.
Because of all the whitewash, Jerusalem and its environs glistened in
the sunlight during the Passover season.”
Now
I have to say that if I would have not read this then I would certainly not
known the background for what Jesus was talking about here.
Now
we must try to understand the meaning here as we have the background to what is
now being said. We know that these
verses are a curse to the scribes and Pharisees, so like the whitewashed tombs,
on the outside appeared beautiful, but inside they were like the tombs that are
they were full of dead man’s bones and all uncleanness. They were spiritually dead and had no genuine
regard for God’s law, despite their outward praise of it and claim to be its
true interpreters and teachers. Now it
is clear that Jesus called them hypocrites!
In an infinitely worse way than the tombs ceremonially defiled those who
touched them, that is the scribes and Pharisees spiritually defiled those whom
they touched.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The fact that these scribes and Pharisees
were dead spiritually, the truth is that every person who is born is born spiritually
dead and are in need of the saving grace that Jesus provided when He died on
the cross. There is no way humans can be
saved on their own, and that is what the scribes and Pharisees believed that they
were doing. Don’t be fooled by false teachers
who teach that you can work your way into heaven, because that will only result
in going to hell.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will guide my steps as
I go through this day, and I trust that His Holy Spirit will use the Spiritual
Diaries that I write to call some to salvation, which is one of the reasons why
I write these, actually the main reason, with causing other believers to grow
in their faith.
10/31/2023 8:46 AM
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